Game Show

Looks like ABC wants more and more game shows, eh? They already have 'Wipeout,' and several months ago they picked up 'Trust Me, I'm A Game Show Host.' Then they got the game where they throw you off a building if you get a question wrong and now they're picking up six episodes of an American version of a long-running Russian show where players get together to solve puzzles.

The original title of the game show was 'What? Where? When?' and I like that title better than the new one they've given the show, 'The Six.' Networks love having numbers in the title of TV shows for some reason. The premise: teams of players have to get together to solve a puzzle in one minute for a lot of cash. No idea how much money is involved yet but I bet it's at least $500. Merv Griffin Entertainment ('Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy') is producing the show.

Game show hosts by their very job description creep me down to the bone. It's just in their nature. They have to go out of their way to make ordinary people look comfortable, even though they have never been on television.

Some housewife from Minnesota who is one number away from owning a new Ford Focus is so nervous, she could fly into an eye-bleeding seizure at any moment. Enter the host. He has to step in and calm her down before that happens.

However, there is a fine line between comforting someone and invading their personal space with the force of a German infantry. These are the hosts who put that creepy feeling you get whenever you hear the phrase, "Come on down!"

I love 'The Price is Right.' If I were to pick my 20 favorite TV shows of all-time, it would be on that list. But that doesn't mean it doesn't anger me. Actually, the contestants who play 'Price Is Right' anger me.

You'd think that anyone who attends a taping of the show would be familiar with its games, but you'd be amazed at the number of people who have never seen the one they're about to play or have seen it yet still completely screw it up. The contestants on 'Wheel of Fortune' often make me sad, but at least they seem to know how to play (even if you often wonder "why can't they guess this?" and "why are they still buying vowels?!").

What follows is a guide to winning seven popular games on 'The Price Is Right.' I didn't include games like Squeeze Play or Pick-A-Number or One Away or Switch? or a half dozen others because those games really just involve luck.

Ho-hum, I know. Most test patterns have had shorter runs on TV than 'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel.' How is that news?

It just got me thinking: what would the world of TV and really the world itself be like without daily doses of America's favorite quiz show and America's favorite wheel spinning and letter guessing show?

If you were shocked to hear about ABC's 'Downfall,' a game show that drops people off of buildings for our amusement, you clearly don't watch enough TV and lead a rich, fulfilling life.

Television's long and storied history is filled with game and competition shows that pit their contestants in a physical, psychological and gastrointestinal showdown, most of which were lost to the ravages of obscurity. Well, it's "filled" if you only look at the last few years or so when the economy tanked and people turned to humiliating themselves in the national media to keep from having to hunt small rodents for sustenance. That's how 'The View' got started.

These are the shows that not only tortured contestants, but also their viewing audience unless Dick Cheney happened to be watching any of them.

It looks like the networks have run out of ideas for reality shows and game shows that are set on the ground, so now they're thinking vertically. ABC has ordered a game show titled 'Downfall,' where contestants vie for $1 million by answering trivia questions on top of a skyscraper. If they miss a question, the money flies off the side of the building to the street below.

The part of the game that will get the most attention from viewers and the ABC legal department? Players might take a plunge off of the building too (wearing a harness, of course).

It's tough to pull off an April Fool's Day prank and not look like a complete tool. Believe me, we've tried it more than once here at TV Squad. Either the joke is so subtle no one gets it, or it's so obvious and over the top that people start to think we've had our senses of humor surgically removed.

I wanted to give that caveat before I talk about what Drew Carey and the folks at 'The Price is Right' did to celebrate April Fool's Day today. If you didn't see it, Kathy Kinney made her second appearance on the show as her old 'Drew Carey Show' character Mimi Bobeck. This time, Mimi has been given the reins of the show by the folks at CBS, and she not only has made a few changes, but she's watching her arch-nemesis Drew's every move.

The gag worked in places. But the problem with carrying a gag like this through an hour-long game show is that you actually have to play the games in a straightforward manner. And that's where things broke down. Video of Drew's and Mimi's intro is after the jump.

Game shows used to flood the dial of my TV back in the 1980s and '90s. And that was when my TV could only pick up eight channels, three depending on the weather.

Back then, almost everything from daytime fare to the occasional prime time bit of airtime starred game show hosts. Their purpose on television was solely to wear smart suits, make sure their teeth reached the optimum level of whiteness and keep the game moving but entertaining.

Now that game shows are making a slow but steady return to television, it seems the traditional role of "host" has turned away from the traditional "game" emcee like Chuck Woolery, Wink Martindale, Bob Barker and Art Fleming and more towards lively hosting personalities from other walks of entertainment life like Drew Carey, Wayne Brady, Howie Mandel and Guy Fieri. Does this mean that the role of the traditional TV game show has gone to that great big "Curtain No. 2" in the sky?

I think we can all agree that Japan still controls the market in WTF game shows. Sure, we can laugh about how "crazy" 'Wipeout' is, but Japanese game shows make that show and 'Minute To Win It' seem like 'Jeopardy.'

If you had the chance to take home thousands of dollars and all you had to do was inflict teeth wrenching pain on a fellow human being, would you do it?

In France, a documentary posing as a fake TV game show posed just that question and the results may surprise you. They won't if you're a cynical bastard with no hope for humanity.

The concept for the experiment is based in part from the work of Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist who sought to understand the psychological actions of the Third Reich and the Nazi regime and how authority influenced their actions.

I'm happy that this show doesn't involve people throwing chairs each other or women sleeping with their grandfathers, but couldn't Springer have just done a normal, regular, traditional game show? Why does it have to have this dating/reality show vibe, this..."ick" factor? (Hey, there's a title for a game show.)

The best part of the BuzzerBlog story above is that it says that GSN is bringing back both 'Card Sharks' and 'Million Dollar Password' to the network next month.

Do you want to experience the awesome majesty of the 'Wipeout' obstacle course but without having to endure the painful humiliation of having to sacrifice your dignity on national television? Nintendo has the answer.

David Oxford of Activision Publishing said in a released statement, "Watching ABC's 'Wipeout' on TV is outrageous fun, and viewers can't help but dream of trying the obstacles themselves. We designed the video game with this in mind. 'Wipeout: The Game' brings all of the challenge and laugh-out-loud hilarity without the pain."

I assume he means the emotional pain and not the physical, unless of course someone catches you playing it in public.

One that seems to have fallen under the radar is this epic "spin battle" between two contestants in the final throes of the episode. Both of these mighty Whammy warriors bring their scores to an astronomical amount that could rival the majesty of Mount Olympus, only to come crashing down to game show doom.

Check out this bit of "Game Show Thunderdome" where two women enter, but only one leaves ... and then, technically, the other but without any money or sense of personal dignity.

This just in from our "Department of Stories That Will Keep You Up at Night By Reminding You that the World Can Be an Awful, Horrible, Rotten Place." We probably need to rework the title.

Rodney Alcala, a serial killer convicted for the deaths of four women and a child, appeared as "Bachelor No. 1" on a 1978 episode of 'The Dating Game' hosted by Jim Lange. And here's the most f-ed up part, he won!

Buzzerblog found the actual episode on YouTube, that never-ending fountain of "Keyboard Cat" entertainment, of Alcala competing for the heart of one Cheryl Bradshaw. CNN also talked to one of his fellow bachelors who described him as "obnoxious" and "creepy," which incidentally is how most people describe what it feels like to watch a full episode of 'The Dating Game.'